When Do You Need Site Scopes?

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Let's delve into several compelling reasons to consider incorporating a Site Scope, providing you with the insights and tools necessary to keep your network running smoothly.

If you’re an OptigoVN user, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Site Scopes. They are our secret weapon: with a Site Scope enabled on your OT network, you’re getting diagnostic insights no other OT network monitoring solution on the market has.

But here’s the thing: there are still some OptigoVN users missing out by not applying Site Scopes to their OT networks. While OptigoVN’s free suite of diagnostic tests provides you with unrivaled visibility into the health of your OT network, Site Scopes help you turn those insights into actions. It’s probably the single most important thing you can do to supercharge your network health… next to getting up and running with OptigoVN, of course.

So, let’s look at some common scenarios most of our users experience—including common issues in MS/TP and BACnet/IP networks—and where Site Scopes will reduce your resolution time from days to minutes, help identify small anomalies before they become major issues, and provide continuous monitoring to ensure your network is in prime shape—and stays there. 

Do any of these situations sound familiar? A Site Scope might just be for you. 

ICYMI: What Is a Site Scope and What Do They Do?

A Site Scope is an advanced diagnostic add-on tool within OptigoVN that gives you deeper insights into your OT network’s performance. It helps you identify and resolve network issues faster by providing detailed, real-time diagnostics, recommended actions, and device inventories.

When Would You Want to Add a Site Scope?

Here are a few scenarios where a Site Scope becomes invaluable:

You Need Device-Level Information

When you’re managing an OT network, problems can arise at the device level, and identifying faulty hardware can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Issues like broadcast storms, traffic bottlenecks, and even physical issues may seem like system-wide failures, but they’re often caused by a single malfunctioning device.

A Site Scope takes the guesswork out of troubleshooting by giving users the address details and information on each device that may be the source of an issue. Instead of manually testing each device and subnet, you can quickly pinpoint and resolve the specific issue, saving time and effort.

You Need Specific Addresses or Identifiers

Duplicate addresses are a common challenge in BACnet networks, and diagnosing them manually is time-consuming. Unlike IP networks, devices on an OT network need to be assigned a unique identifier (an address, instance number, or even a network ID). But with a multitude of devices to oversee, duplicate assignments can and do happen. Without the right tools, identifying which device is causing the conflict, or even that a duplicate is the source of the problem, can take hours or even days.

Site Scopes simplify the process by providing the duplicate’s necessary device address, instance number, or network number. This detailed information allows you to correct any duplication issues quickly, ensuring smoother communication across your network.

You Have a Lot of Devices to Monitor

As your network grows, especially with the addition of IoT devices, keeping tabs on hundreds or thousands of devices can quickly overwhelm your ability to manually check BMS servers or scan devices by hand with any regularity. Traditional BACnet network monitoring tools built within an automation operating system aren’t going to cut it, and manually tracking each device’s status or identifying the source of a problem is impossible.

OptigoVN’s Site Scopes For Integrators can handle unlimited device monitoring, and facilities managers can add Site Scopes with the ability to pull deep insights from over 200 devices per network. Got more devices? Add a second Site Scope. It’s that easy. 

With this level of insight, you can easily pinpoint any issues across even the largest deployments, saving time and avoiding manual troubleshooting.

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How many issues will you solve today?

You Want to Focus on Preventative Maintenance

Preventative maintenance is key to avoiding network downtime, but if you’re doing manual observations, it’s hard to stay on top of everything, or even be aware when potential issues start to emerge. Without timely notifications, problems may build up unnoticed until they cause larger disruptions.

Site Scopes track your network’s performance against industry-standard thresholds and best practices, notifying you when something of concern goes off course. These notifications allow you to fix small problems, say devices with excessive read rates, before they escalate, keeping your network running smoothly and reducing the likelihood of future failures.

You Want an Up-to-Date List of Active Devices

It’s easy to lose track of which devices are active on your network, especially in large systems where multiple vendors may be adding and removing devices. This can make it hard to keep an accurate picture of what’s happening across your OT network at any given time. This can also represent a serious security issue. Without an up-to-date picture of devices on your network, you can’t be sure there aren’t untrustworthy or malicious devices on the system. 

With a Site Scope, you get an instant, up-to-date list of all active devices. This gives you a clear understanding of which devices are currently online, helping you manage your network more effectively and quickly identify any inactive, malfunctioning, or unwanted devices.

You’re Conducting Root Cause Analysis

When recurring issues plague your network, it’s essential to understand what’s causing them. Without historical data and in-depth insights, identifying patterns can be nearly impossible, which leads to repeated troubleshooting efforts without getting to the root of the problem.

A Site Scope provides the level of detailed, historical insight you need to perform effective root cause analysis. By tracking network behavior over time, the results from Site Scopes allow you to detect patterns, address the underlying causes of issues, and prevent them from happening again.

Adding a Site Scope to your OptigoVN account is an affordable way to unlock powerful insights and streamline your OT network management. While OptigoVN is free to use, Site Scopes offers affordable, advanced diagnostics that quickly pay for themselves through time and cost savings. 

Plus, you can add as many Site Scopes as your organization needs, ensuring comprehensive coverage at all times. Ready to get started? Sign up for a free account today at www.optigo.net and see what you’ve missed!

Already an OptigoVN user? Adding a Site Scope takes just a few seconds. Here’s a video walkthrough to help:

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